An Accidental Romance
by YamiPaladinofChaos
Summary: [Harima x Eri] Thirty stories about a delinquent and a princess, for the 30 kisses livejournal community. 8 [our own world] Little by little, Harima's world grew a little more.
1. 11: Offered Kisses

**Title: **Offered Kisses

**Author/Artist:** YamiPaladinofChaos (ypaladinofchaos)

**Pairing**: Harima Kenji/Sawachika Eri (Flag Faction)

**Fandom**: School Rumble

**Theme:** #11 gardenia

**Disclaimer:** School Rumble is the property of Kobayashi Jin.

**Notes**: For 30kisses community. Spoilers for the recent manga

Something, maybe social propriety, maybe nervousness at having _him_ in _her_ home, maybe that little burning feeling that she held in her heart- _something_ made her decide to take Hige on a tour of the grounds before they started work on the class album.

God, this was embarrassing.

"Pretty big place you got here, Ojou," he says casually, arms crossed behind his head, calm and collected like this was at school or some other usual place they might meet, not her house.

"It's my father's," she corrects reflexively, nervousness keep her jittery.

He doesn't respond. Not that she really expected him to, but the silence isn't exactly welcoming.

_Think of something_, the devil at her shoulder (who wears clothing that is _way_ too revealing) urges, dancing in the air.

"Like what?" Eri asks under her breath, to make sure not to alert Hige.

_Your flowers!_ Thank God for angels, literally (and also thank Him that her good side tends to wear rather chaste clothing as opposed to the embarrassing leather of the devil).

"These are my flowers," Eri manages, gesturing toward a small patch of brightness next to the house, though it sounds a little more like "Thesearemyflowers" to Harima's ears. And they are, really, truly _hers_- before Akira and Mikoto and Tenma, they had been her friends, and even after she had gotten human friends she never forgot the tiny part of the grounds that was her flower garden.

"Those are-" she begins to explain, but suddenly he cuts her off, kneeling in front of the flowers.

"Gardenias." Hige's face seems oddly content at that moment, and a ghost of a smile seemed to touch down on his lips for an instant. "Pyotr likes them."

"Pyotr?" Eri blinks once, puzzled. It doesn't sound like a girl's name, or even a Japanese name for that matter...

"My... uh... friend. He likes flowers," Harima says quickly, hoping to get off the subject as quickly as possible. He's not gonna tell her that his pet _giraffe_ likes them, after all.

"Huh. I do too," Eri says quietly, kneeling next to him, so close that if she turned her head she'd likely kiss his cheek by accident. Slowly, she reaches over to one, plucking it gently, carefully, bringing it to her face to smell, lips accidentally brushing over the petals in a soft kiss. After another moment, shyly, hesitantly, she hands it over to him.

"Here," she manages, praying that he'll think the red stains on her cheeks are just the heat. "For your... friend."

He stares at her for a brief moment, enough to make the red bloom on her cheeks greater.

Finally, Hige reaches over, a light smile on his face as he takes the flower (and her kiss, a part of her absently realizes) and places it inside his jacket pocket for safekeeping.

"Thanks, Ojou."


	2. 12: Keep Your Head Up

**Title:** Keep Your Head Up

**Author/Artist:** YamiPaladinofChaos (ypaladinofchaos)

**Pairing:** Harima Kenji/Sawachika Eri (Flag Faction)

**Fandom: **School Rumble

**Theme:** #12 in a good mood

**Disclaimer: **School Rumble is the property of Kobayashi Jin.

**Notes:** For 30kisses. Spoilers for the recent manga.

It was the very first time she was ever dumped.

Despite hearsay and all the things the media had to say about hearts breaking, tears flowing, anger, denial, etc., etc. that was supposed to come at this exact moment, Eri felt nothing, only a vague confusion and a very simple question.

_What now?_

She'd been dumped without even being in a relationship. Without holding hands, without going on a real date, without even kissing just once.

Hige kept talking, saying things that should have hurt but didn't, as though she was watching it all from very far away, like God. She could even see herself, standing there with this perplexed (and maybe even vaguely disgusted) expression on her face.

She didn't run away from him. She didn't scream at him. She didn't even cry.

With an odd numbness, Eri waved, said some words she didn't even recall five minutes later, and then walked away without another thought from the man who just broke her heart.

---

Hige didn't go to school the next day, but Eri didn't know that until the day after, because she didn't go either.

Some might have passed her apathetic reaction off as shock and said that, in light of her delinquency the next day, she had obviously needed the day off to wallow in her own misery.

Eri would probably have delivered some very cutting words in response and told them, quite frankly and truthfully, that she simply didn't feel like coming in, and that she hadn't been miserable.

Truth be told, the day was actually one of the better ones. Nakamura helped her cook dinner, and it didn't turn out half bad (i.e. it wouldn't torque your stomach into a figure eight), her dad managed to spend quite a bit more time than usual with her before a sudden business meeting called him away (but Eri forgave him, because she always did).

The only thing that took the edge off of everything, good and bad, however, was the daze. It kept her from being too happy, even after her father kissed on the forehead goodbye, and kept her from being too disappointed when she messed up dinner on the first try.

If Eri was being very, very honest, she might admit that maybe she actually did need that day off.

---

"Eri-chan!" Tenma waved energetically, all smiles and sunshine as usual. It was enough to make Eri smile back, if only faintly.

"Hey," she replied casually, waving slightly.

"You missed school yesterday!" Tenma peered inquisitively, her head curving past Eri's shoulder to gaze into her eyes while still walking next to her. "And so did Harima-kun."

No matter what anyone, man, woman, or child says about what happened that moment, Eri will firmly deny that she missed a step in her walk.

Tenma gave her a mischievous little grin, childish to the point of absurdity on a high school girl. "Did you two have a love love rendevous? Did you two get kissy kissy?" she asked, giggling with every girlish word that came out of her mouth. Only Tenma could get away with saying such things.

Eri rolled her eyes, not even giving the energy necessary to blow up at that statement. "No way," she rebuffed, shaking her head. "There's no way that guy and me would ever do something like that."

_Because he dumped me._

---

In the end, she told Akira, because, if anyone could figure this out, it would be her. After all, the last time she had been confused about it all, it had been Akira to take her out and give he the resolve to keep going.

She told things slowly, but without the exact details, like the whole thing was just a dream, the memory of which was fading with each passing moment. Then, suddenly, she started mentioning all sorts of things- the Sports Festival dance, the odd little pseudo-dates that happened every so often, the day he came to her house, all the way to that rainy day when they first truly met and walked together beneath an umbrella.

When she was finished, Eri wasn't physically out of breath, but she felt drained, taxed to the point of near exhaustion. Even trying to pick up the tea cup in front of her took more effort than it should have.

Akira said nothing for a while, as the afternoon sun filtered through the windows of the café, sipping her tea with a cold natural grace that Eri was always jealous of. The silence stretched on not entirely uncomfortably, but there was a weight in it, something thick and palpable, hanging just out of sight but not out of mind.

"Are you still curious?"

Eri is only thrown by the question for a moment, because this is Akira and such a direct question should be expected of her. "Of course I am," she muttered in reply, "I mean, this feeling... I don't really want to lose it. Even if nothing comes of it, I still want to have it."

"Hmm," is all Akira says in reply, because that's all she needs to say.

Sometimes, the answer to our questions is staring us right in the face.

---

A few days later, after another leave of absence he turns up in the hospital- appendix problems, apparently caused by Tenma's cooking.

At the very least, Eri can now say that her cooking has never put a man in the hospital.

It's awkward, to say the least, but only for the beginning- all she needs is a little anger, that little irritation that Hige can always provoke from her, and suddenly they fall back into old patterns, old habits.

And, despite the fact that its almost (as it almost always is) a fight, Eri is suddenly in a good mood, the observer's daze broken at last.

Because she might have been dumped, but it hardly means she's not still in love, or that there's no chance of her ever being happy. They're young, there's so much that can happen still.

So she keeps her head up high, and smiles because its not over yet.


	3. 8: Building A New World

**Title: **Building A New World

**Author/Artist**: YamiPaladinofChaos (ypaladinofchaos)

**Pairing**: Harima Kenji/Sawachika Eri (Flag Faction)

**Fandom**: School Rumble

**Theme**: #8 our own world

**Disclaimer:** School Rumble is the property of Kobayashi Jin.

**Notes:** For 30kisses.

For the longest time, Harima Kenji thought nothing but the worse of Sawachika Eri. And from his point of view, it was justified- every time he got mixed up with her, his life seemed to take him farther and farther away from his beloved Tsukamoto Tenma.

After a while, he decided that maybe she wasn't so bad. But that still didn't place in her in his heart the same way Tsukamoto Tenma was.

After all, his _world_ revolved around her. Every word she spoke, every movement she made, everything she did dictated whether he was in heaven or hell.

There was no room in it for anyone else. He went to school for her, he changed for her, he even went on outings for her.

At least, that's how it started. Somewhere along the line, that changed, just a little. Tenma wasn't his life at school, suddenly there was so much else in there- Hanai, that Megane, that four eyed annoyance who was the only person capable of putting up a good fight; Suou, without whom he probably would have froze to death during Christmas; Imouto-san, the closest friend and confidante he had, the one he trusted.

And Ojou, the Princess, the rich girl who rudely barged into his life at every turn, who couldn't be ignored, couldn't be set aside, who was always there. Who went from being a constant annoyance to someone he might have been tempted to call a friend on occasion.

In a way, they'd all done that to him, all of them barging into his life without his permission or him wanting them to, but somehow Ojou was the worst, the most pervasive of them all.

His world wasn't just about Tsukamoto Tenma anymore, though it still revolved around her, kept her as its axis.

Sooner or later though, that would fall. It was an unstable axis, tilting and twirling with reckless abandon, out of control, hanging on by a thread, waiting for the right crisis to snap and bring Harima Kenji's world crashing down around him.

It might be with a gift of chocolates, it might be with a date, it might even be with a kiss- somehow, Tsukamoto Tenma would unwittingly bring the destruction of Harima's world about. Likely without ever even realizing it.

When that time comes, however, then his world, now built with so many others- Megane, Suou, Imouto-san, and even Ojou (or maybe even especially)- won't stay broken. They'll rebuild it, they'll make it better.

For when Harima Kenji's world crashes down, he'll see a world he never even thought possible before- that is, the love that waits outside the borders of his Tsukamoto Tenma-ruled world, held by a certain Ojou.

And maybe his new world will be built with that love instead.


	4. 1: True Cliches

**Title**: True Cliches

**Author/Artist**: YamiPaladinofChaos (ypaladinofchaos)

**Pairing**: Harima Kenji/Sawachika Eri (Flag Faction)

**Fandom:** School Rumble

**Theme:** #1 look over here

**Disclaimer**: School Rumble is the property of Kobayashi Jin.

**Notes:** For the 30_kisses community. Mild spoilers for the first season.

It was the kind of day that, if you were so inclined, you could jive down the street whistling, like you owned the world, like nothing could go wrong. It was bright without being oppressively warm, a patchwork sky of stunning cobalt mixed with shining ivory.

It was the kind of day for making a positive change in your life, talking to that cute girl you've been interested in, buying something nice to spoil yourself with, or finding a twenty dollar bill on the ground.

It was, in short, a good day, for good things to happen.

And for some people, good things did happen.

It was not supposed the kind of day that would have your heart torn out from your chest and stomped to pieces in front of you.

Sadly, Harima Kenji's luck just isn't that good.

---

The day started out well enough, with only mild teasing from Itoko, a good breakfast, and the deadline for his manga still far enough that he could afford to take his time.

Maybe that should have been a clue that things would go horribly wrong.

However, Harima Kenji is only a part-time cynic. The other half of the time he's a hopeless optimist.

Hopeless being the key word.

From the day's start, things started making ever so slight changes in a decidedly southward direction. Things such as, the small package on Tsukamoto Tenma's desk, the not quite as blank look on Karasuma Ooji's face, or the grinning faces of Tsukamoto Tenma's friends.

Of course, Harima Kenji wasn't thinking of those things, only of Tsukamoto Tenma.

The only warning he managed to catch was, predictably, the most obvious, in the form of Karasuma Ooji stepping outside of the classroom at lunch, and Tsukamoto Tenma hurriedly following after him a moment later, package in hand.

Harima, as per usual, followed his jealousy instinct and followed them out.

And, unluckily, this time he probably shouldn't have.

From another part of the classroom, cognac eyes followed his back with curiosity, and something a little softer as well.

---

There is a famous saying about the five steps to accepting a terminal illness; these being, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

If heartbreak was a terminal illness, that Harima Kenji hit the first stage, then the second stage, skipped over to the fourth stage, then cycled back and hit the first and second stages simultaneously and then instantly reverting to the fourth.

If the five steps were a linear sort of pattern, this was a pattern more akin to a Mobius Strip, but only if said Mobius Strip had been designed by M.C. Escher on crack.

By now, you're probably wanting an explanation on exactly why Harima Kenji is currently cycling through more emotional stages than one person should sanely be doing.

It was a smile that did him in. Oh, there was much more to the situation, lots more, but in the end that smile was like the hammer slamming down nails on his coffin.

Because the smile told him something, as if God Himself had come down from Heaven in that smile to deliver a cruel message.

_You can't win her heart._

Tenma smiled at Karasuma, the gentlest, most loving smile that Harima Kenji had ever borne witness to in his entire life- it was something he dreamed about every night and day, prayed and hoped and wished to be directed at himself. Only, this was reality, and the smile was not even remotely _considering_ going his way.

They sat together outside, not in the way they had done previously, but facing each other, smiling- Karasuma, of all people, _smiling_- and chatting away, eating food that was undoubtedly cooked by Tenma herself.

After a while, Karasuma said something- "Thank you," "Its delicious", or maybe "I love you"; whatever it was, Harima couldn't hear and probably didn't really want to hear it- and suddenly Tenma pressed a daring kiss to his cheek.

The hammer slammed down the final nail.

And Harima Kenji's heart was, if you would forgive the terrible but true cliche, broken.

---

If you asked her, Sawachika Eri would fluster and babble and deny adamantly that she was not, in any way, in love with Harima Kenji.

Which would, in effect, tell you three very important things about Sawachika Eri.

Firstly, she's a terrible liar about her feelings.

Second, she's very clearly in love with Harima Kenji.

And lastly, she's still unsure that she _is_ in love with him.

People often go through what are called 'Leaps of Faith', in which basically one must let go of doubts and plunge into the unknown.

Today, Sawachika Eri is will be offered one of the chance to do just that, and leap into the deepest unknown in the world.

Love.

And again, forgive the terrible- but true- cliche.

---

She followed him outside. If you asked her later, and people would, why she did so, she couldn't honestly say what truly compelled her to follow him.

However, because she was hesitant, trailing him at a good distance, she was only about to exit the building when Harima brushed right past her, as if he hadn't seen her- or indeed, as if nothing else in the world existed but him.

In the history of her encounters and dealings with Harima Kenji, there is a recurring pattern of misunderstanding bringing, not pain, but ever increasing feelings for the delinquent instead.

However, the raw pain that one could palpably feel coming off of him was impossible to misunderstand. Something had happened, something that wounded him deeply.

As if he had loved someone, and now they had broken his heart.

And as his footsteps began to fade from hearing, Eri found herself stilled at a crossroads. If she really did love him, then shouldn't she be the one to comfort him after such a thing? And if she didn't, then she'd be able to let him go without much thought.

A more serious, more distressing thought came to mind.

If she went after him, what would happen between them? Would she be brushed off? Would she discover her feelings not strong enough? What would he do in reaction? Reject her? Love her? Either one was frightening in its own right.

Remember that Leap of Faith I talked about earlier?

Here it is folks, and yes, it is scary as Hell.

---

Harima Kenji was running. Where, to what purpose, he did not know.

There was simply the all-consuming need to _not be here_.

"Wait."

His step stilled, and for a brief moment, his hope maddened ears prayed it was the dulcet tones of his beloved Tenma-chan. But reality kicked that hope in the face and knocked it aside, revealing itself as the much softer, reserved tone of a certain Ojou.

His step regained itself and he began moving again.

"I said wait."

He ignored it. Whatever Ojou wanted, he didn't want to hear it, not now of all times.

"Please."

Suddenly, his step faltered, a wash of cold reality flushing over his mind for a moment, unable to comprehend what he'd just heard.

A hand, small and fragile-seeming, gripped the back of his shirt, strong but shaking, as if afraid.

_What is she afraid of?_

"What do you want, Ojou?" he managed a quiet rasp, something to keep the hurt out of his voice. "I'm not in the mood."

"Where are you going?"

The question itself wasn't much, but the tone, that brittle and withdrawn, nothing like the fiery princess that he had come to know.

"Why are you so curious?" Harima shot back, managing as much defensiveness as he could. The urge, the need to be away, pounded in his ears, coursing through his veins.

"Are you going to leave again? Like you did after the Sports Festival?" she took a step forward, unsure except that she needed to say these things. "Because the girl you love broke your heart?"

"What would you know?" he snapped, suddenly furious with her for intruding, for interfering, for asking all these questions. Why did she care? "Have you ever been in love?"

Sawachika Eri stood on the edge of the map, teetering at the brink of the unknown, of the uncertain.

She took a breath.

And made the leap.

"Yes."

Harima jerked as if literally shocked, finally turning to look at her, but Eri kept her head down, blonde bangs brushing faintly against the fabric of his shirt.

"And he's in love with someone else." If it was any other girl, that would have come out as a choked sob, but Eri managed to keep her composure and the tightness in her voice was all that betrayed her.

Now it was Harima on the edge of the map, at the unknown. Not even he could avoid the undeniable truth, the way she avoided looking into his eyes, the loosening of her grip on his shirt, the tremble in her voice.

All that remained was to see whether or not he would take the leap.

Ojou, in love with him. This constant annoyance, the person who could get under his skin quicker than most, who always seemed to be around for bad things to happen to him.

The person who danced with him at the Sports Festival when no one else would, with whom walking down the street underneath an umbrella seemed as natural as breathing, who wasn't really all that bad if you got right down to it...

"That could change," Harima said quietly, almost unaware of what he was saying, of what everything he said meant, what it would change in his life.

Now it was Eri's turn to jerk as if shocked, looking up at him with wide eyes, pale, angular face filled with uncertainty and not a little hope. With a frail whisper, she spoke.

"Really?"

If Harima had been unsure that she was in love with him, all doubt was dispelled now.

He turned around, facing her fully at last. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached over, and grasped her hand softly, squeezing once for assurance both for her and himself.

"Yes."

---

It was the kind of day that, if you were so inclined, you could jive down the street whistling, like you owned the world, like nothing could go wrong. It was bright without being oppressively warm, a patchwork sky of stunning cobalt mixed with shining ivory.

It was the kind of day for making a positive change in your life, talking to that cute girl you've been interested in, buying something nice to spoil yourself with, or finding a twenty dollar bill on the ground.

It was the kind of day that, even if you got your heart torn out from your chest and stomped to pieces in front of you, someone else would come along and start to piece it lovingly back together.

It was the kind of day that you might notice something wonderful that had been next to you the whole time.

And for Harima Kenji, that was the kind of day he had.


End file.
